My Attempts at Honey Harvesting

[DayValleyDahlias]

Well, I got up the nerve.  Sprayed the Fischers stuff on a fume board and went to work.  Pulled 3 heavy mediums off the 3 colonies.  The Bee Quick did not remove as many bees as I thought, I must have done something wrong.  The bees just got really quiet!  When I though the super was empty, I took them to my "honey house"...The little buggers were still in the supers but hiding!

Had to put the super back in the cart and leave it outside til dusk.  Then I removed the frames and brushed the remaining bees off!

Next time I will try the other methods...

Also one super had some pretty crazy comb with lot's of bridging.  This box was 5 hive, there was brood in it!  So I returned it to the hive...

Now on to the extraction which I will do hopefully Sunday!

[iddee]

Bee Quick will only remove bees from honey comb. It won't remove them from brood comb. That's why you had so many left in the super.

Most times, under normal conditions, bee quick only leaves a half dozen or so in a super of honey.

[JP]

Sharon, I wonder if you perhaps didn't put quite enough beequick on the fume board.

Other thing is, once you spray the fume board you are supposed to allow the sun to hit the metal top and warm the beequick thus vaporizing the beequick to achieve the desired effect before you place the fume board atop the supers.


...JP

[Scadsobees]

I always use a shop vac hooked up as a blower to get the rest of the bees out after using the bee quick.  Still get a few bees in the garage....

It is hard when they make the crazy comb...the fumes don't get into those cracks so good, and neither does the wind from the blower.

Happy extracting!! 8-)

Rick

[johnnybigfish]

Hey Sharon!
You sound as if youre doing it right!
When I harvest honey I have about a million bees flying around my head, on frames, in the extractor, in my buckets what catch honey, EVERYWHERE!!!..They arent stinging tho, theyre just trying to get their honey back. I spend as much time getting bees out of the honey as I do getting the honey out of the comb!
Heres how I do it!
Your friend,
john
http://picasaweb.google.com/Johnnybigfish/ExtractionDay101108?feat=directlink

[JP]

John, you're a brave man extracting in the daytime, outside! Nice pics bro! Your honey looked good!


...JP

[johnnybigfish]

Thats funny! I posted these pics once before, and someone said they had never heard of anybody extracting honey outside! :)
I had thought outside was pretty much the only way! I could just imagine me doing it inside with a million bees with me in the kitchen!
your friend,
john

[Kathyp]

the other thing about fuming them off is that you have to give them a really clear route out.  i take mine off and put them at an angle over an empty super with a bottom board, or some other way to give a good opening out.  the go down and either out the corners or out the bottom.  it takes a little time and there will be some bees left.  i don't know that you can do it over the hive.  also, if you don't give good ventilation out the bottom, they don't move.  it seems to make them kind of drunk.  :-) if you think you got it to strong, you can vent the fume board by putting a couple of wedges under the edge to lift it a bit.

[slaphead]

John,

I'm amazed you're not covered in stings.  I would think extracting next to the hive would be suicide.

You're the man!

SH

[sparks]

John,

What a great set of pictures.   That was a real interesting "lesson" for me, who is yet to get my first two packages of bees next week.  I guess that strainer keeps all the chest hair out of the honey also. ;)  I assume that it will be over a year before I get to partake or the harvest.

Chuck

[RyanB]

Nice pictures and you are quite brave!

[johnnybigfish]

My hives are actually about eighty feet away from where i was working...But, I might as well have been in the bee yard! :)If there were hive boxes in the pics it was because I put the frames in them to carry the honey...You'll see the empty frames leaning on a tree in the background in one pic...As a matter of fact, after I get the honey, theres frames usually  hanging up in the trees to let the bees clean them..The trees look sorta like "Bottle Trees" cep for instead of bottles theres bee frames!
Naw, Im not so brave...I just dont like the heat so much anymore....Thats a funny thing about some pics..Like my fishing pics.....It looks so comfortable and calm, but you cant tell its like about a hunnerd degrees on the water( or out there in the yard!)
Hey Sparks, my first year I got about...awwww, cant remember....between 15 and 30 lbs I think, which I thot was alot for my first time getting honey.I fed them as long as they took it tho which was most the summer! Tasted like the best honey I ever ate! :).So, I think you might get some honey, even if its from crooked comb being cleaned out!
your friend,
john

[DayValleyDahlias]

Wow, those are cool pic Johnnie.

Next time I harvest, I may try the way Ray M. suggested.  I thought I followed the instructions properly, but hey, I am stilllllll a newbee!